A SLEEPY village is reeling after the shock discovery of an illegal cannabis factory on a private estate.

Firefighters made the incredible find after climbing through a window of a house in Mountview Road, Claygate, to check the building after a power surge blew out every electricity meter in the street and caused overhead cables to crash to the ground.

The discovery was reported to police who swiftly arrived on the scene last Monday evening (September 15). They removed certain items and took them to Staines Police Station where they are currently being analysed.

EDF Energy Networks was brought in to investigate the blow-out and carried out considerable repair work, restoring electricity to all properties by 11.50pm on Tuesday.

It concluded that someone had deliberately tampered with the electricity network to illegally abstract power.

The result was a power surge that brought a power line down in Mountview Road at 9.48pm, interrupting the electricity supply to 24 properties and damaging wiring in several of those houses.

Residents told how they heard a loud explosion and were plunged into darkness in their homes.

When they went outside to see what had happened they saw electricity cables snaking across the road, emitting sparks. One man had to stop traffic driving down the road.

A family, who did not want to be named, was alerted to the problem when a neighbour knocked on their door to see if they had lost their power.

As they walked around the house they smelt burning coming from their utility room, where their gas meter was on fire. The fire brigade arrived after the flames had been extinguished and spent an hour and a half checking the wiring.

The father said: “I believe our earth wire became live and melted. When the cables came down, the wires got mixed up and the earth wire became live. It heated up the gas pipe, got very hot and set the gas meter alight.”

EDF has now replaced the cables in the road and attached a new cable to the family’s house.

After the fire brigade checked the family’s property, they visited each house in the street to check for further damage caused by the power surge. Firefighters found that one house had a gas leak when the wiring melted a central heating pipe.

After knocking on the door of another property and getting no response they climbed through a window and saw the cannabis plants.

The drug den was housed within a three-storey red brick building, currently leased for around £2,472 a month.

A neighbour said he had reported suspicious activity at the house to Elmbridge Borough Council. Although he rarely saw or heard the tenants, he noticed the windows were always closed, even on hot days. Shutters were boarded up behind each window and when he tried to look through the letterbox he found it had been nailed shut.

He said: “Lights would go on and off and it just seemed very strange. I don’t know a lot about cannabis but I did wonder about it because it all looked so suspicious.”

Questions have been raised by residents as to how EDF failed to notice such a huge amount of energy being used by one property.

One person said: “How long have the tenants been tapping illegally into the electricity mains? Why didn’t EDF realise what was going on? Surely it must have appeared on the grid as using such an enormous quantity of power.”

EDF is supporting the police investigation into the matter.

In a statement it said: “EDF Energy takes the illegal abstraction of electricity very seriously and warns that anyone interfering with an electricity meter risks electrocution and could start a fire in their property.”